THE OPERA

"Sounds like a management challenge, but... somehow, this is what the Opera intended."

"Not quite how I imagined you'd run your squad, but... somehow this is what the Opera intended."

"I suppose that'll serve us well if he winds up getting interrogated... somehow, this is what the Opera intended."

"Assuming I believe you, which I don't, your proposal is for the Opera to allow itself to be extorted by the Azzurri mob. That's what I'm hearing?"

The exquisite work of the 'magic box', one of the proudest achievements of the Opera's Technical Services Office.

A.k.a. 'The Freezer'. The Opera's labyrinthine archival complex. Where the old, useless, and discredited are consigned until they're dismissed or die of despair.

"I suppose that'll serve us well if he winds up getting interrogated... somehow, this is what the Opera intended."

"The Weeping Eye are always watching, Hershel. Don't you understand? They're not like the Opera. They are everywhere, they are merciless, they are..."

"The Weeping Eye are always watching, Hershel. Don't you understand? They're not like the Opera. They are everywhere, they are merciless, they are..."

"Let me," she laughs again, covers her mouth. "Tell you what it was like working for the Opera in Portofiro."

"Believe me when I say this... You are not the person for this job. There is no way the Opera seriously thinks you could pull this off. This is suicide."

"And you can bet the Opera knows it's suicide, too. A thousand ways to fail, no way to win. You are cannon fodder, at best."

The Remembrancers tell of a word hidden for centuries by a convent of isolated nuns -- then stolen by PROBABLE, who told the Opera that it means 'subdue' in a long dead tongue.

"Believe me when I say this... You are not the person for this job. There is no way the Opera seriously thinks you could pull this off. This is suicide."

The voice of the Opera's Head Traumatist barks in your mind: Push harder than you think you should. Force the clot.

The voice of the Opera's Head Traumatist barks in your mind: Push harder than you think you should. Force the clot.

"The Opera... never tires..."

"You never told me what was my cryptonym, around the Opera."

"It's very satisfying to say, is it not? Perhaps it's just the aura of techno-fascism. He's a very serious individual, but maybe not as bad as the Opera makes him about to be. Very polite."

"The controller was already on the Opera's radar? You should have said something, Hershel, we could have exchanged secrets."

"The truth is the Opera can't afford your rate. They've got me scrounging sol from payphones to get by."

"I work for the Opera, Ignatz. I always have."

"I thought that the Opera's methods would be less than a century old. I thought that you would be up to it. I guess fate is a cruel mistress... just like you are to me, Hershel. Do you hate me?"

"Really, I hate to say this to you, Hershel, due to all the respect I have for you and the Opera, but you're a little fucking rusty."

You should run this by Melita when you have a moment. Maybe the Opera can send you through some early concepts.

The last stop for failed spies of no further use to the Opera. Men and women stacked by the hundreds in dormitories filled with stale, recirculated oxygen.

"I told you once. The Opera never tires."

"Did he ever mention the Opera?"

"The Opera never tires."

"With the Opera?"

"I wasn't checking, merely passing on a point of discussion. What you or the Opera do with the prisoner when you get him is none of my concern, of course."

"This isn't a request, I'm merely passing on a point of discussion. What you or the Opera do with the prisoner when you get him is none of my concern, of course."

"I think the Opera puts people with me on purpose. To curse them."

"You have more faith in me than the Opera does."

"The Opera asset. Your asset."

"Does the Opera not give out bonuses for successful assignments?" His mouth twists. "Strange way of incentivising."

It was too early for PSEUDOPOD to be in-theatre alone. The Opera failed him.

"I believe I do. Good to see the Opera's reputation for amateur dramatics is intact."

See? The Opera provides.

"A fabrication from the narcs upstairs. When I first joined the Opera I used an acute method of auto-hypnosis to forget my own name. The process took seven months."

Your desire to stay out of the freezer and prove yourself in the eyes of the Opera has clearly been foregrounded in his mind. You can use this against him.

"The Opera has a budget for in-theatre expenses, surely...?"

"If the Opera wants to zero me out, they'll send somebody else. And they won't want to, after this assignment."

"Think whatever you want, the Opera's going to have you dissected and studied, freak."

"Careful, PSEUDOPOD. Remember that the Opera wanted to have you zeroed out."

"You want to get back in the Opera's good graces, right?"

"I don't care what you 'new friends' think. The Opera knows I'm the original, and that's all that matters."

"You know that, when it's all over... there's a chance the Opera might still consider you a liability."

They left him like this. The Opera. Or the shadow behind them.

"Serious question, CASCADE: Have the Opera dispatched you to zero out your former Crew?"